Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Signs of Summer

It's beginning to feel, look, and taste more like summer. Signs of the season abound. Deer flies for one. These pesky insects emerge right around the Solstice. They hurt more than mosquitoes, flying around your head before quietly alighting on your neck or arm and then a quick zing with their razor-sharp mouth parts.

A much brighter sign: the yellows of summer are blooming, including buttercup, hawkweed, cinquefoils, and hop clover.

A buttercup

Hawkweed

Cinquefoils

Hop Clover

Summer is also a tasty time. Wild and farm-grown strawberries are ripening, getting sweeter with each warm, sunny summer day.

A small, but sweet, wild strawberry

A quart of strawbs from a local farm

I picked the first handful of sugar snap peas from our pea trellis today, the first day of summer.